April 11

District Courthouse

11:50 AM

Cotoli Morix

Unsurprisingly, the other regions of the courthouse were just as, if not more, chaotic when compared to the area around the scene of the crime. Chrysalis and I ultimately elected to stay close to both Detective Erikson and each other as we pushed through the crowds, and I couldn't help but frown as we struggled against the current of people that was coming at us so fiercely. The police weren't doing the best job of cordoning people away from the area around the crime scene, it seemed. I frowned to myself at them, hoping with everything that I had that this got easier the further that we went along in our investigation.

There was a single woman who was standing by herself against a wall, and I frowned to myself. I couldn't help but wonder who she was, though I figured that I was going to wind up with some answer in that department sooner or later. Her hair was a red color, though most of it was tucked up into the hat that she wore close to her head. She was wearing a police uniform, and that told me almost everything that I could have wanted to know about her. She didn't seem to notice that I was there, or if she did, she was deliberately choosing to ignore me in favor of looking to Detective Erikson. Chrysalis nudged me in the side to see if I had picked up on this much as well, and I offered her a small nod of agreement.

"Detective Erikson," she greeted simply, her voice offering next to nothing in terms of kindness. She was clearly the blunt type, and I had to actively resist the urge to wince at the sound of her voice. Was that bitterness I heard? I certainly hoped not, but there wasn't much of a way to say for sure.

"It's good to see you," Detective Erikson greeted, though I could tell by the tension in his voice that he didn't entirely agree with such a sentiment. He turned to face me and Chrysalis a moment later as he gestured to the woman gently. "This would be Valerie Hoope. She's a police officer working at the local precinct."

"And I'm not the only one here," Officer Hoope chimed in. "There's one other person around here too who you might know. In fact, Quenton was the one who arrested the suspect of this case. I think that we already know who it is that we're going to be finding suspicious. You just have to do the rest of the investigation to show that it's the truth of the matter."

Detective Erikson nodded to himself, and I assumed that this Quenton character was yet another person involved with the crime. I could put the pieces together easily enough to believe that he was likely a different police officer who had come to be involved with this case, and I found myself frowning. Chrysalis stared down at the ground silently, unwilling to glance up in the direction of the conversation that was unfolding before us.

"Would you be able to point us in his direction?" Detective Erikson questioned. "Any details that we can receive would be perfect, and he seems to know quite a bit about this case if he was the one who arrested the suspect."

"Yeah. He's around the corner interrogating the suspect," Officer Hoope responded. "Talk to him all you want. I don't really care all that much what you do. Just... Don't cause any problems, though I guess that you know better than to do something like that in the first place."

Detective Erikson nodded, and I found myself glancing back and forth between the two at their strange dynamic. I could tell that they didn't work together all that often given the strange tension that hung in the air between them, though I ultimately decided that such a fact likely wasn't relevant in terms of this case. Instead, I simply followed Detective Erikson away from the scene when he started to move in the direction that Officer Hoope had pointed out to him. Chrysalis remained at my side, so close by me that it seemed as if she may have been liable to accidentally push me over in her hurry to get away from Officer Hoope, not that I could particularly blame her. She didn't seem to be the kindest of women, did she?

"Officer Hoope is a newer recruit that has started working at the precinct," Detective Erikson replied. "She transferred over to our division a short while back alongside another officer, Quenton Wills. I'm not quite sure where either one of them came from, though I suppose that they likely had their reasons for coming here. I don't really see them all that much since our jobs within the precinct are so radically different."

"And this Quenton Wills character... It sounds as if he was the one who arrested the suspect," I frowned to myself. If he was the person who thought that Sora committed this crime, then we were going to need to have a serious talk with him immediately. Luckily for us, it seemed as if Detective Erikson was more than content to help us out with such a matter.

He nodded his agreement. "That's what it seems like. This case is still so new that there are quite a few details that we aren't sure of, so we'll have to figure everything out as we go along," Detective Erikson commented. We arrived at our destination before he had the chance to say much of anything else though, and he fell silent as he greeted the man that was standing in the area. "Officer Wills."

The man was standing against the wall, one hand pressed against the outline of the room as he stared at Sora, who was sitting on a chair with handcuffs tying her wrists together. She practically jumped out of her seat from surprise when she noticed that Detective Erikson had arrived on the scene, and her eyes fell on Chrysalis and me from there. Her eyes filled with desperation, and I offered her a small wave and a reassuring smile. Even if I didn't know her all that well quite yet, I had a gut instinct that she wasn't the one responsible for this crime. All I had to do was prove it... Even though I didn't know much of anything about proving anything with solid evidence yet since I was so early into my career of learning about the legal system. Still, I was going to give it a shot for her sake. She deserved that much, and I wanted to find justice for the sake of the victims who had been attacked by the culprit.

"Detective Erikson," Officer Wills said, and he allowed a small smile to spread across his face. He began to slowly stride away from Sora to approach Detective Erikson before his gaze fell on me and my sister. "And who are your little friends here? I thought that we weren't supposed to get regular people involved with our investigations, especially not when it came to important matters such as attempted murders..."

"They aren't just civilians at the moment," Detective Erikson explained to him. "It seems as if they know something about the time of the crime. They claimed to have been with the suspect in the minutes leading up to the discovery of the crime scene, so that means that their testimony is important. We're going to have to listen to what they have to say if we want to find a complete understanding of this case."

Officer Wills continued to examine me and Chrysalis for a long moment before he simply shrugged. "Alright, I suppose. It isn't as if I was getting much of anywhere when it came to interrogating her on my own. Maybe one of you will be able to make her confess to the crime," he remarked as he jabbed a finger in her direction. "She's done nothing but insist that she wasn't the one who did this, but when the evidence is pointing to the contrary, you can't blame me for not believing her. Why would I? She was the one found standing over the unconscious bodies of the victims. She has a motive too, so even if she won't confess, she might as well have with how much we've already figured out."

"I think that the investigation will reveal the truth of the matter," Detective Erikson insisted as he looked at Officer Wills critically. "On that note, I would like to hear what it is that you were doing when you arrested the suspect. I'm afraid that I'm somewhat out of the loop on that front, and I need all of the facts as soon as possible if I'm going to find the truth behind this case."

Officer Wills simply offered a shrug. "I was in the area because I was doing something with another trial at the time. After that, I heard a voice scream. I ran into the area and grabbed the girl who was standing in the doorway. It was the suspect, as I'm sure you can imagine. She must have been the one to do it. After all, who else would have a motive to attack the defense attorney and prosecutor from the most recent trial? She was upset that she was ignored when it came to showing that the defendant was the guilty party, and so, she decided to lash out and get revenge for them ignoring her. It seems like a rather simple case to me. Unfortunately for her, she was sloppy, likely because of her general lack of life experience. She is still a young teenager, after all. Perhaps she'll get off easier because of her age," he said.

I glanced over to Chrysalis before I shook my head. "We were with Sora in the minutes leading up to the crime being discovered," I told him. "We had decided to try and find the defense and prosecution from the last trial together, and so, we split up to start searching the courthouse. We did see her shortly before the crime scene was revealed as a crime scene, and I don't think that she would have been able to do all of this in the short window that she was offered after her alibi with us goes away."

Detective Wills simply chuckled and shook his head. "Oh, please. You act as if you know anything about something like this," he muttered under his breath. "You're hopeless, and you're children the same way that the defendant is. I don't know what it is that you think that you're going to be able to do, but the fact of the matter is that she was the one who committed this crime. I can't think of anyone else who would have been able to do it."

"I don't think that it's quite that easy," I countered. "There must be something else going on here that we simply aren't seeing yet. Why would the suspect attack the people who might have been able to help her when it came to finding the real truth behind the murder of her mother? It doesn't make sense in the slightest. She would have wanted to speak with them, yes, but going so far as to attack them... It doesn't make any sense when you look at the situation critically. Plus, she wouldn't have had much time to do anything given the fact that she lacked an alibi for such a short period of time."

I was simply greeted with a chuckle and a shake of the head from Officer Wills. "You really don't know anything, do you? Killers like to prey on our assumptions of what is and is not possible. All of this is a way for them to get away with everything that they do, and it's up to us to stop them under any means necessary. You just have to know what it is that you're looking for," he told me.

Detective Erikson held up his hand a moment later. "That's enough. Officer Wills, you may go," he said deliberately. "I would like you to see if you can locate the defendant from the May Lin murder trial. Bring him here so that we can question him. I believe that he could have something of value to say, especially since he seems to have seen the two victims in the time leading up to their assault. We don't have a moment to lose."

Officer Wills offered him a nod. "Alright then. If I can trust you to handle things from here, then you can consider it done." He offered me and Chrysalis a charming yet somewhat insidious smile. "Good day, you two." From there, he rounded the corner and disappeared from view, and all I could do was watch as he left my field of vision.

Detective Erikson simply let out a sigh and shook his head. "Alright. I think that for right now, our most productive option would be to speak with the suspect of this case about what happened. After all, she knows better than anyone else what she did or did not do, and that would be a good place to start," he told me and my sister. With that said, he shifted his attention over in the direction of the chair that Sora had taken up residence in, a light smile on his face. "So... You're the one who was arrested for this incident, were you not?"

Sora nodded, her knees pulled up to her chest the same way that they had been when Chrysalis and I first saw her. "Yes... But I didn't do it! I was just trying to find them so that we could talk about the trial, and then... I walked into the lobby, and that was when I saw them on the ground... I didn't attack them! I wouldn't have had a reason to do it in the first place!" Her voice was edging on notable agitation now, and I felt something inside of my chest splinter in half at the heartbreak in her tone. This was hard for her as I could imagine, especially given the fact that it was coming so quickly on the heels of her mother's murder.

Detective Erikson nodded. "I understand," he told her. He seemed to have his own beliefs when it came to this case, and if I had to guess, I would have assumed that he didn't think that she was the one who did this. "You are still a minor, so I'm obligated to ask... Do you have any information on your parents or primary caretakers?" He kept the question somewhat vague, no doubt because he wasn't sure of the response that he was going to get. I, however, already had a general consensus on what she was going to say, and in part, it was the reason that I had come to watch the May Lin murder trial to begin with.

Sora hesitated for a long moment before she shook her head. "No... My mom was the only one looking after me," she confessed quietly. "I never knew my father, and my mother didn't seem to want me to know him either. I don't have any other known relatives either, so... I don't have anywhere to go now."

My heart could have stopped right there, but I convinced it to keep beating in the name of this case's investigation. I don't think that any words could have possibly described the rush of emotion and panic that hit me like a full force train at those statements, and my mind was cast back to the way that my father looked down at the magazine picture of May and her young daughter so long ago. I prayed that what I was thinking was not the truth even though I already knew better than to get too optimistic on the matter.

"I see," Detective Erikson murmured under his breath with a shake of his head. "What can you tell us about the case? We know that you discovered the crime scene, but surely something else must have happened before that."

Sora pulled her knees away from her body and allowed herself to sit somewhat normally. "Well... I was trying to find the defense attorney and prosecutor for the trial about my mother's death. I just knew that the defendant was the one who had done it, and I had to prove it one way or another. I was confident that I would be able to show everybody that this was the truth, but... That didn't wind up going so well," she murmured with a shake of her head. "I was working with Cotoli and Chrysalis to try and find them so that we could talk to them, but in the end... I just wound up finding Mr. Yang and Prosecutor Yin when they were unconscious on the ground in the lobby. I screamed, and... And that was when I was arrested."

"You know, there's something that's bothering me about this case already," I interjected. "This case seems to have been a stabbing, yes? If that's the case, then... Where did the blood splatter go?"

"It's possible that the stabbing took place from behind," Detective Erikson suggested. "Perhaps the culprit was behind the victims and held the knife in a reverse grip when stabbing them from the front. That would explain why there was no blood splatter to be found at the scene of the crime, wouldn't it?"

"I suppose so," Sora murmured with a shake of her head. "I didn't really look for anything like that. I was stuck to the spot, and... I froze. I couldn't do anything but stare at them, and it wasn't until after I was arrested that people started checking their pulses to see that they were alive. They had already lost consciousness by the time that I found them, so I... I thought that they were dead."

"I see... Thank you for telling us all this," Detective Erikson said kindly, offering her a gentle nod. "Did you think that anything about the crime scene was at all strange? It doesn't matter how small the detail is; sometimes, an investigation needs the tiniest details exposed in order to be able to continue."

Sora paused for a long moment before she eventually shook her head. "I don't think so... But if there was one thing that I found somewhat weird... It would probably be the fact that I was arrested so quickly," she admitted. "It took almost no time at all for me to be grabbed and handcuffed. The officer that grabbed me barely even bothered to look inside the room at what was happening because he was so focused on trying to get me out of there. Then, a redheaded woman in a police uniform showed up and started looking after them, but she seemed... I don't know... Upset. From there, others started coming to the scene because my screaming had attracted attention, and then there was a crowd trying to look into the room."

"I think it's safe to assume that the second of these two officers was Officer Hoope," I murmured under my breath with a small shake of my head. "But I do have to agree that it is odd that Officer Wills knew to show up so quickly. Perhaps I'm simply jumping to conclusions here, but I feel like it should have taken anyone longer to reach the scene. Was there a noticeable gap in timeframe when the officers showed up compared to when the civilians arrived at the scene to examine what was happening?"

Sora nodded. "There was a gap of about two minutes, I think... I'm not entirely sure. I just know that it felt like I was alone with them for a long time. I didn't really have much of a way to log time given the fact that I was being arrested and couldn't look at any clocks. It felt like an eternity before other people showed up, and... I really didn't feel safe, if I'm being honest. I know that it sounds ridiculous for me to say something like that about the people that are meant to keep others safe, but... It's the truth of the matter."

"That's perfectly logical," Chrysalis assured her, and I saw a twinge of anger at the corner of her eye. I placed one hand on her shoulder, and she accepted it with a small glance in my direction. "I don't know what we should be doing next though. The officers showing up so soon is definitely weird, but I don't know what we can even do with information like that. Unless we have a clear path that will let us use this information to find out more about the case, then..."

"It could be helpful in the future," Detective Erikson said simply. "Right now, Officer Wills is off trying to find the defendant of the May Lin murder case. There are a few people who claimed to have heard that he was going to speak with the defense and prosecution from the trial shortly after it ended. Apparently, the victims of this case pulled him away from his other business in a different lobby somewhat dramatically, and they had no choice but to wonder what it was that he could have been up to with them. Unfortunately, we don't have much in the metric of answers on that front, but... It's something for us to keep in mind, I suppose."

"I bet that this is involved somehow," Chrysalis chimed in. "What if he was the one who did all of this? I feel like it would have been much easier for him to get his hands on a knife in a time like this, though maybe I'm just jumping to conclusions. He was going to talk to the defense and prosecution, and there weren't as many time constraints regarding the window in which he could have attacked them. He could have done this and is trying to get away from the scene as we speak."

"We don't know that for sure," Detective Erikson told her, but I could tell that there was something inside of him that agreed with her theories. "For the time being, we'll simply have to keep our minds opened in the face of something uncertain. I trust that you'll all be able to stay out of trouble until then... The last thing that we need are more people to get hurt in a time like this."

"Do... Do you think that the two of them are going to be okay?" Sora asked softly of Detective Erikson. "Um... The defense attorney and prosecutor, I mean. Are they going to be alright? Or are they going to wind up... You know..."

Detective Erikson hesitated for a long moment before he shook his head. "I'm afraid that I don't have an easy answer to a question like that. We have medical personnel that are doing everything they can to make sure that those two are alright, but the injuries that they suffered were significant. Stabs to the stomach... Those aren't easy things to recover from. Someone most certainly wanted them to die, and it's only by a stroke of luck that they managed to survive for long enough for them to be found, especially given the fact that the weapon was removed after the fact."

"What do you mean?" Sora inquired, confusion crossing her face in the form of a frown.

"Well, a stab injury is somewhat complex, truth be told," Detective Erikson began to explain. "The most blood isn't lost when the weapon is inserted. Instead, the weapon sort of acts as a plug to make sure that more blood doesn't leave the body in question. When the weapon is removed, much more blood is lost, and that's when the idea of death by blood loss becomes so dangerous. Given the fact that the knife was removed from both of our victims... That's incredibly dangerous. They could have very easily wound up in worse condition than they're currently in, and we're lucky that they're still alright and well enough to even press on right now. They're unconscious, but they have a fighting chance, and that's a lot more than anyone could have expected given the circumstances."

"I see..." Sora said under her breath. She looked down at the floor before swallowing dryly. "I don't know what to say about all of this... I was hoping that they were going to be able to help me. I would never want to hurt them out of revenge for the trial... Prosecutor Yin said it herself; she was trying to find the crucial piece of evidence that would show that he did it, but she... She wasn't able to. It must have been stolen somehow the way that she said..."

"One just has to wonder how a thing like that is even possible," I commented. "It would have taken someone with notable connections to the police to get in and take the evidence before leaving. The defendant couldn't have possibly done it. After all, he was in police custody up to that point, and leaving the detention center behind, especially if it was to commit a theft, simply isn't possible."

"You don't mean to say that..." Chrysalis began to say, her eyes going wide.

I hesitated before nodding. "Right now, I have to wonder if perhaps the defendant in the murder trial had an accomplice. I know that we don't have much basis for it now, but I can't imagine that thorough people would wind up losing their most important pieces of evidence. It just doesn't seem to fit in right with the rest of the puzzle. The evidence could have very easily be stolen, and if it was, that opens the question... Who took it? Why? Were they really working with the culprit of the case?" I asked.

"That must be it!" Sora cried out with wide eyes. "I wasn't the one who did all of this, and I wouldn't have even known where to find a knife, but... Well, maybe the one who killed my mom did it. If somebody else had taken the knife, then they could have given it back to him so that he could hurt Mr. Yang and Prosecutor Yin. I know that I could be jumping to conclusions here, but I know that he was the one who killed my mom. If the two of them really did drag him away to talk after the trial because they thought he was suspicious, then... Everything just seems to make sense."

"It seems like the pieces are finally starting to come together," Chrysalis said with a ghost of a smile that I knew she was struggling to keep up. "Right now, I think that our biggest priority is going to be finding a way to talk to the defendant from the murder case. He would have had a much better chance to do all of this."

"We can't say for sure that he's the culprit yet though," Detective Erikson pointed out. "If we jump to conclusions like that, then we might wind up hiding the truth from ourselves by mistake. We'll have to take this one step at a time the same way that any other case would be handled."

I nodded to myself as I looked down at the ground. In all honesty, I had no idea what we were going to be able to expect from this case. I was glad that we were finally able to get our hands on something resembling a lead, but there was a lot that we had yet to take care of in order to find the truth behind what was happening. The defendant from the murder trial was just the tip of the iceberg. If my theory was correct, then there was a potential accomplice who had aided in the attempted murders from afar, and that meant that we were going to have to track down multiple criminals as we moved into the later stages of our investigation. Somehow, that made everything a bit more daunting, and my stomach twisted at the thought.

"Detective Erikson!"

The man that entered the lobby in the moments that followed was not someone that I recognized, but he was wearing the traditional uniform of the bailiffs. He saluted one hand at his forehead before stepping fully into the room. Previously, his arm had been obscured by the doorframe, and when he did come into view, I saw that he was pulling another man along beside him. The man was not wearing handcuffs, but he was staring out at the rest of the people in the lobby with silent animosity. I could have sworn that I saw him glare at me out of the corner of his eye, but I chose to not offer him the dignity that came with acknowledging such a thing.

The man was just as I remembered him, to say the least. He was on the taller side, seeming almost impossibly large compared to most others in the room. I was the only one who had a chance of competing with him in the height department, but I was still nowhere near his size in terms of shoulder width and similar matters. He was a huge man, and that was something that I had come to expect from him leading up to this point.

"You asked to see Brennigan Mennon, sir!" the bailiff exclaimed as he pushed the man forward in the direction of Detective Erikson. "Here he is! He was trying to leave the courthouse when I found him!"

Detective Erikson nodded. He glanced over to me, Chrysalis, and Sora a moment later. "Well, you three... I take it that you know Mr. Mennon," he told us quietly and carefully. Of course we knew him. How could we not?

After all, we were looking at none other than the supposed killer of May Lin.

Oooooooh intrigue

-Digital